DURHAM, N.C.—The veteran Duke players knew this time would be different.

They knew Ryan Kelly’s return from a foot injury wouldn’t follow a script that was fresh enough to still be painful for Blue Devils’ players, coaches and fans. But even those veterans weren’t expecting the type of dramatic return Duke’s versatile senior big man turned in on Saturday evening.

“No,” senior big man Mason Plumlee said with a grin when asked if he thought this was possible, “but I’m glad it came.”

After almost two months on the sidelines, Kelly exploded for 36 jaw-dropping points as his No. 3 Blue Devils upended the No. 5 Miami Hurricanes, 79-76, in front of as many Kelly well-wishers as could squeeze in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

He received an ear-splitting roar when the starting lineups were introduced, and then he scored seven of Duke’s first nine points and never really let up. He had 20 points in the first half, 16 in the second.

“We were all privileged to see one of the performances for the ages, I think, by Ryan Kelly,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Me saying spectacular or whatever doesn’t do his performance justice. One for the ages. Probably as good of a performance as any Duke player has had in Cameron.”

Officially, Kelly was a game-time decision. The players knew Friday, though, that Kelly would be back, the same day he went through his first contact practice. Miami wasn’t surprised to see him on the court.

Kelly was averaging 13.4 points before his injury, and his career high through 118 games had been 23 points. So, yeah, the 36 points might have caught the Hurricanes off-guard a bit. He missed his first shot from the field—a wide-open 3-pointer—but made his second from beyond the arc.

“It was one of those moments where you just kind of feel like you’re back,” Kelly said.

Overall, he was 10-for-14 from the field, including a stellar 7-for-9 showing from 3-point range.

But let’s get back to that painfully fresh script.

Two years ago, Duke’s promising season was cast into upheaval when a foot injury to prize freshman point guard Kyrie Irving kept the future No. 1-overall NBA Draft pick off the court for more than three months. Irving returned for the NCAA Tournament and played well—he averaged 17.7 points in three games—but the No. 1-seeded Blue Devils seemed a bit disjointed and were knocked out by fifth-seeded Arizona in the Sweet 16.

The parallels to that season, that injury situation, seemed pretty obvious, on the surface.

Kelly missed 13 games this year with a foot injury, and for a long time it wasn’t known when—or if—he would return to the court. With Kelly, the Blue Devils were 15-0 and the frontrunner to win the national championship. Without him, they merely survived—they went 9-4—but his absence meant they weren’t an elite team.

The huge difference between the returns of Irving and Kelly, though, is the position they play. In theory, at least, it’s easier for a post player to ease into the mix than a point guard.

“That was probably coach’s idea, to bring him back slowly, but he didn’t allow that,” Duke senior guard Seth Curry said. “He came in making every shot, and it’s hard to take someone off the court who’s doing that. He was a force for us.”

Kelly also has more experience with this group of players. Irving, as a freshman, had played just eight games with the Blue Devils before his injury. He was outstanding in that limited action—including a 31-point performance in a win over No. 6 Michigan State—but that early in the season, players were still figuring out their roles. When he came back for the tournament, Duke had to go through a crash-course re-learning process.

Kelly, on the other hand, has played with Plumlee for three years, with Curry for two and one with Cook. Plus, he played 15 games this season before getting hurt. The comfort level was much, much better. And then there’s the other huge thing. When Kelly went out, Amile Jefferson and Josh Hairston filled his role, to the best of their abilities. When Irving got hurt, the Blue Devils had to change everything.

“With Kyrie, we had no one to play the point guard the entire season and we tried to move him off the ball,” Plumlee said. “It’s an adjustment. And Kyrie, he’s a ball-dominant player. I mean, he was the best point guard in the country, but his first game back was a tournament game. It’s just a different dynamic.”

It’s a dynamic that certainly impressed the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. The ultimate goal is to prove they’re worthy of a No. 1 seed now with Kelly back in the lineup, that they’re the same team now as they were when they knocked off the likes of Louisville, Ohio State and VCU with Kelly in the lineup.